Question: What social media is best for my business?

Answer: Choosing the best social media platforms for your business to post on isn’t about the platforms themselves, it’s about your business. So that question doesn’t have a single, distinct answer!

Social Media for Business Owners is Vast

Look, I know as well as you do that social media isn’t an easy arena for business owners anymore. We’re not in Kansas – Toto is far gone, and we’re all swimming in a sea of platforms, both overarching and niche-specific. It makes life complicated, especially if you’re a one-human-show, and you’re wearing all the hats all the time (I get it, I’ve been there). You’ve got to be a designer, a marketer, a social media manager, a PR department, an HR department, a web designer, an accountant, an administrator, and that’s on top of anything you actually do in your business.

It’s tempting to say “well I’ll just post on the most popular platform then, and get the most out of my time” – and that’s a reasonable thing to think. If you post on the most popular platform, you’ll get in front of the most eyeballs, and then end up with the most customers you could have from that stream of inquiries/customers. But (you knew there was a “but” coming, right?) unfortunately, that’s not actually how this works. You can’t just say “well Facebook has the most users, I’ll just post there” and call it a day. You’re leaving money on the table, and leaving reach on the table, and that’s not a win.

Over the years, more and more platforms have appeared

Before we get into how you should actually choose where to post, I want to acknowledge that this is super duper NOT a “you problem”. You’re not the only one dealing with this, and it’s only getting more and more complicated as time goes on. Platforms pop up overnight, people move over – the online space is getting more and more fragmented, and more and more difficult to grab attention on.

It’s not been helped by the changes happening in the online space overall, because… let’s face it, these companies are out for themselves, not for us as small business owners – or as humans. So one of the reasons you can’t just pick the platform with the most users (Facebook) and post there, is some audiences are leaving it in droves. And that means if they’re your ideal audience, and that’s where you’re posting? They. Won’t. See. It.

If you put your eggs in the basket of a newer platform, and you only have so many eggs (aka energy and time to post things), and that platform ends up dying off… not to get all “sunk costs” and stuff, but that’s not great either. And with platforms popping up left and right, it’s easy to fall into that trap.

How do you choose which social media to put energy into?

With all these problems and more ahead of you in the “somehow a full time social media manager despite being a yoga teacher” (or whatever your business does!) journey, the question is, how DO you choose which social media platforms to put your energy into? Which ones will pay dividends, and which ones will just be you yelling into the void?

The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all, as much as I really wish it was. This conversation would be way easier in that case. You’re going to have to come up with the answer yourself, based on some trial and error, what you know about your business, and what you know about your audience. So the questions I get into below can act as a template for you to start with for figuring it out! Because the platforms you should be posting on might not be the ones I should be posting on, or your cousin with the lawncare business should be posting on, or your best friend who owns a nail salon. Start with these questions, and weed down to platforms that will work!

1 – Where are your people?

The first question sounds like a cop-out, but really, TRULY isn’t. When you’re choosing what social media platforms to post on for your business, you literally can’t start without asking yourself where your potential customers spend their time. That whole thing about posting on a platform and no one who needs your services seeing it? Yeah. That’s the issue. You HAVE to know enough about your ideal customer to figure out what social media they actually scroll on.

Ten bonus points if that platform is where they go to solve a problem, vs where they go to just kind of doom scroll. There’s a big difference between those arenas, and they vary based upon what someone might be looking for! I’m going to use myself as an example, because it’s super easy. I know a lot of my ideal clients spend time on Instagram, and Facebook, because of some of the basic details about who I work with regularly, and who I WANT to work with (which matters too, but we won’t get into too much of that today!).

Posting on platforms where your ideal audience hangs out already, is a great way to get in front of them. Targeting an age group that spends tons of time on TikTok? Get on TikTok. Trying to address an audience who searches for solutions on Pinterest? Get on Pinterest. It sounds simple, because it is, conceptually, at least. If you’re sitting there thinking “well I don’t actually know where my customers spend their time” – ask them. Talk to your clients, say you’re doing data-gathering, and pose the question. You can’t know, if you don’t ask!

2 – Is there a platform you consistently get customers from?

If you’re considering what platforms to post on from the start, as in, you’ve not started posting anywhere at all yet, then this one isn’t going to be the easiest question to answer. But… you still CAN answer it, with a bit of research, and some intuition. We’ll start with “if you are already posting” though, because that’s way easier! If you’re already posting, and you’re getting clients from one of the platforms you’re on, then yay! You have the answer!

If those customers/purchases/clients come in with some amount of regularity, or you get questions from potential customers there, then that’s a great sign that you should put more effort and attention into that platform. Not rocket science.

But if you’ve NOT started posting, it’s time to put in some research hours!! You don’t have to take a long time – just long enough to search up terms related to your business, see who else is on the platform, and get a bit of an idea of whether it’s somewhere others in your area have success. If you don’t see a lot of businesses performing well on that platform, then there’s a chance it might not be the platform for you.

3 – Consistency is key

Another HUGE contributor when you’re trying to choose what social platforms to use, is where you can be most consistent. Obviously having your audience there is huge, and knowing you get customers from the platform is huge too. But if it’s not one where you enjoy posting, and you’re a one-human-show like we were talking about earlier, you’re setting yourself up for failure by committing to a platform you hate using.

If you can’t create content there consistently, you shouldn’t be committing the time to it, because no matter what platform you pick, posting with no consistency won’t get you anywhere for long. We’ve talked about consistency vs virality and other related topics before, but when it comes to posting on social platforms, consistency is absolutely key. So if it means you make a schedule and then batch your content, that’s amazing! Posts go out regularly, and that’s a win. If it means you enjoy using it so you’re in there every day making a post, that’s also amazing! But it all comes down to making sure it’s a platform, and a format, that you’ll consistently post on.

Not enjoying creating video means you might not be able to be consistent posting on TikTok, and that’s okay! There are other platforms you can use that don’t rely on video. If you don’t enjoy writing long form content, then using Substack (which isn’t TECHNICALLY social media, but does behave as a bit of a hybrid platform) may not be your vibe, and that’s okay too. Pick a platform, and a format, that works well for you.

Need a little help creating your social media content?

Hopefully, these questions help you choose between the million social media platforms out there for your business! And if you need a little bit of help with content creation, remember that the Jessica Strobel Photography team is here to help! Whether you need images of your products, or social posts designed and written, we can swoop in and make your life easier. All you’ve got to do is click post! So reach out, and we can talk about simplifying your processes, and taking some things off your plate. You deserve to get to spend your time IN your business!

Bonus: Take a look at just a few results that my AMAZING team of collaborators and me have gotten for our social media management clients!